These are the 10 most popular personal finance stories of 2016

It was all supposed to be so easy. Making ends meet in 2016 proved anything but...

The biggest news story of the year, perhaps the decade, was former reality TV star and property developer Donald Trump winning the U.S. Presidential election. And yet only one of our most read personal finance stories of 2016 overtly related to the president-elect.

The rest of the most-read stories from MarketWatch’s personal finance writers were arguably among the quirkiest and even unexpected stories concerning life’s private struggles (healthy living) and day-to-day budgeting (job-hunting and the rising cost of living).

These are the top 10 most popular stories that impacted your pocketbook:

1. Here’s the real secret to losing weight and staying thin

Health reporter Emma Court analyzed a study of contestants who participated in NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” reality TV show. Every season, people compete to lose the most weight, hence the slightly provocative title. The study concluded that the metabolism of contestants slowed after losing weight, making it even harder to keep the weight off. As such, the biggest test comes after they have reached their ideal weight. The hard work doesn’t end with an extreme diet.

2. Don’t quit your job if you work in 1 of these 5 industries

The U.S. unemployment rate is now 4.6%, less than half of what it was during the Great Recession and there are more than 1 million fewer unemployed people than there were a year ago, Catey Hill reported in this story that keeps returning to the Top 5. However, jobs are harder to find in some industries than others: “There recently were 1.4 unemployed workers for every job opening — or to put it another way, there were 14 workers looking for work for every 10 job openings.”

3. The 10 most expensive places to raise a family in the U.S.

The cost of living varies dramatically across the country, particularly when you have children to think about. The amount that a two-parent, two-child family needs just to pay the bills ranges from about $50,000 to more than $100,000 depending on where a family lives, Catey Hill wrote, citing data from the nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank the Economic Policy Institute. These families had one thing in common: childcare was the single most important and costly item.

4. These 4 colors can be the kiss of death when selling your home

This is exactly the kind of a quirky story that got MarketWatch readers’ attention. No doubt millions of house-sellers think of such odd choices when they are brushing their teeth every morning. The average exterior paint job costs about $2,600, while interior paint costs $1,660, writes Megan Elliott. But choose the wrong shade and you could wind up regretting it later: “Fears of hurting a home’s selling price are likely one reason why many homeowners play it safe when it comes to paint color.”

5. Here are 6 reasons to think twice before moving to Canada

Google searches for “Move to Canada” spiked during and after this year’s U.S. presidential election. There are lots of reasons to move to Canada, particularly for liberals, from fewer firearm-related homicides to universal health care, Maria LaMagna wrote, but she outlined a list of mostly financial reasons that could make you think twice: The process isn’t cheap and, unless you renounced your U.S. citizenship, you would still have to pay U.S. income taxes, are just two of those reasons.

6. Apps for tracking your children or spying on your spouse

Amid all the articles about the costs of divorce and best/worst times to get divorced, this surpassed them in 2016 as the most read. It’s a criminal offense to access a device without authorization. But if ownership of the smartphone in question is under someone else’s name — say, a spouse, a parent or an employer — it’s a legal gray area, lawyers say. Perhaps those with family cell phone plans, or thinking of instigating divorce proceedings, were willing to take that chance.

7. On Pokemon Go, why so many people are choosing Team Mystic

Last July, Pokemon Go hit the streets, literally, and people went crazy chasing virtual Pokemon. But Pokemon Go players chose teams like consumers choose cellphone plans. When players are faced with choosing a team, they can click Team Instinct, Team Mystic or Team Valor. They overwhelmingly preferred Team Mystic (43%), the middle one, to Valor (32%) and Instinct (25%). A hefty body of academic research show the middle option as a “compromise” for consumers.

8. Half of the high-paying jobs in America now require this skill

If you haven’t heard of SQL, Python and JavaScript, and you’re job-hunting, it may be in your interest to check them out, Catey Hill wrote. Half of the jobs in the top income quartile — defined as those paying $57,000 or more per year — are in occupations that commonly require applicants to have at least some computer coding knowledge or skill, according to an analysis of 26 million U.S. online job postings released last June. These technical skills can help in a variety of professions.

9. 45% of Americans pay no federal income tax

An estimated 45.3% of American households — roughly 77.5 million — will pay no federal individual income tax, Catey Hill wrote, citing data for the 2015 tax year from the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan Washington-based research group. (Note that this does not necessarily mean they won’t owe their states income tax.) Roughly half pay no federal income tax because they have no taxable income, and the other roughly half get enough tax breaks to erase their tax liability.

10. Here are 10 things rich people know that you don’t

Lucky may play a part, but people don’t necessarily become part of the 1% by accident. “As a financial adviser, I have occasionally found myself feeling envious of certain clients. Not because of their wealth — but because they were disciplined and determined enough to do all the right things that enabled them to accumulate their wealth and, in many cases, retire early,” Jocelyn Black Hodes wrote. She gave 10 tips that most people could use to build wealth and retire in comfort.

Happy New Year to all our readers.

This list was based on unique visitors to stories from the personal finance or PF section. Stories written by a member of the PF team that did not relate to money issues, but would have otherwise made the Top 10 (such as America’s deadliest animals) were not included. Nor were the Moneyologist columns. And stories by non-PF MarketWatch writers that were tangentially related to personal finance were also not listed.

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